


The Other 6 Wheels

by RosieMaeWrites



Series: The Curse of the 7th Wheel [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuddling, Eating Disorders, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Langst, M/M, More angst, Multi, No actual sex, allusions to sex, everyone on the outside looking in, he doesn't actively want to hurt himself, hunk is a good boy and needs love, not lance's pov, ohoohohohoh, pidge is really mean in context, shiro just busts a nut and rolls over, unintentional self-harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 17:02:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10391625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieMaeWrites/pseuds/RosieMaeWrites
Summary: While Lance may be self destructing, everyone unwittingly has front row seats.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really sorry this took forever!! I hope you enjoy it though,

Hunk noticed Lance was losing weight, noticed how he was ‘too tired’ to eat and how his cheek bones got way too sharp to look good. Hunk also knew when Keith and Shiro finally made their move on Lance because Keith was always watching the Blue Paladin like a hawk during meals and how he’d suddenly show up late at night with Lance in tow and make him eat things. 

It seemed to be working, his friend looked a lot better, more tired, but he was gaining weight. The Red Paladin seemed pretty proud of himself, smirking to himself whenever Lance actually started to eat at meals.

Hell, Hunk was pretty damn proud of him too, made sure to let him know when Keith and Shiro were too busy with each other to notice him. 

That aspect of his friends’ relationship also rubbed him the wrong way a bit. The three of them had small PDA sessions in the common room during a rare ‘movie night’, or after a mission and they all converged into a mass of panting breaths and worry. Hunk could understand that adrenaline, and he liked seeing Lance happy in those moments, and even at times when it was just him and Shiro. 

Hunk remembered once when Keith went with the Blade for something and everyone had a free day and he just walked into the command room that was  _ supposed _ to be empty, only to find Lance and Shiro in a puddle of blankets and looking at the star maps. He felt wrong for intruding and he obviously interrupted something from the way Lance’s shoulders jumped, so he just shouted an apology and left without getting to check out the thing Yellow wanted him to look at, it was alright though. 

Still, after about two months, he had never seen Keith and Lance just hanging out, which seemed weird to him, because they were dating right? Hunk didn’t know and really didn’t want to pry, but still, Lance had said he was dating both of them. 

It was  _ very _ obvious that Keith and Shiro were together, but Lance kind revolved outside of them when they would foree into PDA, which the Red Paladin seemed to be instigating.

When asked, Lance would just blush and grin, saying that ‘ _ it’s fine, they just like PDA more than me _ ’, which Hunk knew for a fact was total bullshit because Lance was the PDA King at the Garrison when someone would ‘date’ him for a week or two. He was just a very loving person, and the Yellow Paladin was a bit scared that that part of his friend was gone. 

 

* * *

Allura kept herself above Paladin affairs for the most part, unless they were directly affecting the performance of Voltron or team dynamic. The news of Shiro and Keith courting wasn’t a surprise in the least, not with the way they looked at each other and their behavior over all. However, the addition of the Blue Paladin, no, no, sorry, Lance, to their courtship was odd.

Polyamorous relationships were pretty common on Altea, which didn’t bother her in the slightest, but it seemed like the already withdrawn Paladin seemed to retract into further, even though he kept up in training. He always looked unfocused to her, though, like his mind was somewhere else, until he started falling behind. Now, his mysterious behavior was making more sense when Shiro informed her that Lance felt physical pain that could coincide with any emotional pain he was feeling. 

Her gut turned when he told her that Lotor did it and she felt ill for a few moments as she tried to forget her betrothed. Still, if Lotor was the culprit, it would take some serious research to undo it. 

Why had Lance waited so long to tell them? It had been months since they had rescued him, and they were only finding out now? It made her view him a bit differently as they went through training. 

Lance’s eating habits also came up in that discussion and Shiro seemed very affected by not noticing and had to be consoled a bit by the princess. Allura had noticed the decline in weight, just seeing the Blue Paladin in his uniform and saw how in seemed to no longer fit him, too loose in awkward places that made her uncomfortable. 

She didn’t comment because she had never really paid attention to Lance’s physique and maybe he had always looked like that. Guilt curled up in her chest as she became gentler, tried to lighten some of the Paladin’s load. 

The teenager seemed appreciative and his stats improved overall, though she didn’t dive all that deep, but his aim was getting better and the team dynamic was improving. Meanwhile, Allura was working on the cure for Lance’s ailments, though it was very slow going.

Hopefully he wasn’t suffering himself in the meantime. 

 

* * *

Keith liked holding Lance at night, when they were both naked and cooling down. He would admit he hated when Lance got up first to get the washcloth because he ‘didn’t like being all sticky’. Shiro was an immovable object after a round or two, so it was up to the two of them and Lance always volunteered.

It didn’t really bother him because he got to see Lance walking away with cum on his thighs and nail marks down his back with ribs that didn’t stick out very much anymore. He was proud of Lance and how much weight and muscle he had gained over the past couple of months. 

When Lance would settle back into bed, the Red Paladin would pull him in and press kisses across his shoulders and sling an arm around the other boys slim waist. Shiro would finally be awake enough to grumble and pull them both closer, though Keith was almost always in the middle, warm and he had less night terrors when he was sandwiched between the two of them.

That’s probably why it hurt so much when Lance cleaned them up, but didn’t crawl into bed with them like he usually did. The teenager made some excuse about ‘sleeping in his own bed’. Keith hadn’t liked it, but he wasn’t going to force his boyfriend to sleep with them. 

Still, the Galra hybrid just nodded and curled into Shiro a bit more, who offered a small wave and slurred “Love you,” in his direction as the Blue Paladin turned and left. 

He was upset when it started happening every night, and he fought to keep Lance against him after they came, still sticky and sweaty. The other boy wouldn't have it though, and as he gained weight, he gained strength to push Keith off and slink to the bathroom. 

It frustrated him to the point that he got up first to go to the bathroom, pushing Lance to get wrapped up in the sleepy bear that was Fucked Out Shiro™. There was protest, but Keith wasn't having it as he got up and went into Shiro’s (the room they were in was mainly Shiro’s because they liked to steal is sweatshirts in the morning) bathroom.

Lance stayed that night, and Keith didn't even dream.

* * *

Shiro kept a pretty close eye on training stats in the beginning. He’d stay up late when sleep was impossible and just pour over them like he was back in school as if he would have an exam on them. Now that the team was more cohesive and integrated, he didn’t check as often.

This time Pidge had asked him to check to see how many hours they had all registered on the simulations, because she wanted to make an algorithm or something like that. The first list that popped up was weekly training, and he scanned the rows, jotting down the numbers on a small notepad until he got to Lance. 

How the hell has Lance done 53.4 hours of training sim this week alone? Oh no… Shiro didn’t bring it up, thinking back to all the night that Lance just left then until Keith would shove him into Shiro’s arm. Lance even helped him get into the compression sleeve and kissed his forehead and the Black Paladin wanted to cry and hold him, using the slight bend that his stub allowed him to keep him close.

Again, he couldn’t see what Lance was doing and it really hurt, knowing that his leadership had strayed so far that he couldn’t tell what anyone was doing, and it frustrated him to no end.

It would take backing Lance into a corner to talk to him about this, as it did with most of his issues. Still, Shiro really didn’t want to be the bad guy in all of this, and he was trying his best but…

He needed to take a step back, because with Lance added to the weight of the team, he needed to sort things out.

 

* * *

Pidge adjusted her glasses as she looked at the data with a wrinkled nose. She had thought that Keith or Shiro would have the most training out of all of them, and had coded accordingly. Hand to hand combat and sword fighting was the bulk of the training algorithms made, and suddenly all of that script didn’t mean shit because finally to try and be a decent paladin.

Looking back at it, Pidge would really regret snapping at Lance about messing up her algorithms with the sudden influx of training for long distance ballistics that would take about 6 more hours of reworking some integers and try to decipher how to work it into the whole thing. 

“Why now do you sudden start training?! You fucked everything up!” Pidge yelled at him the next time she saw him, during dinner over green space goo because was too busy trying to upgrade Yellow to sit down and make dinner.

“I-I’m sorry Pidge, I just-” Lance sounded pained, and he should be, dammit! That was a lot of hard work down the drain. 

The Green Paladin was about to tear into him again before Shiro’s galra fist connected with the table and plates and silverware jumped, as well as the others at the table. The older man looked stern, his eyebrows drawn together as his lips set into a hard line. 

“Pidge, don’t scold teammates for improving, I understand that it’s a challenge to rewrite code, but that’s no reason to go off on Lance.” He chastised, looking over where Lance was sitting next to him. 

The Blue Paladin was red in the face, holding himself around the middle and shaking a bit, looking like he’d just got beaten up. Shiro was about to ask him if he was alright before Lance just pushed back from the table, mumbling that wasn’t hungry anymore before leaving, practically running out of the room with Keith trailing and Shiro giving Pidge a look of disappointment before he followed.

The table was quiet for a long moment after that, with Hunk frowning at the empty seats and Allura whispering something to Coran that made his mustache twitch before the man frowned. 

“And you’re positive?” The Altean man whispered to the Princess who nodded solemnly, before they looked down at the table with frowns. 

 

* * *

Coran had a feeling Lance wasn’t doing all that well for the longest time out of all of them. While the mustachioed man was quite fun and boisterous, he noticed the smaller things. First it was how tired Lance looked, then it was falling into a language Coran didn’t know, but it was probably the boy’s native tongue if the ease of the speaking was anything to go by.

The older man was gentle, never yelling when it was necessary or forcing Lance to talk about his feelings, and that was years ago now. The Blue Paladin had grown and changed and it worried him. 

This boy that would smile and joke and flirt shamelessly...where had he gone to? Replaced with a boy of dark skin and protruding bone that made Coran nauseous to look at. It hurt him to see a once bright star so dimmed by the weight of keeping a team together through the bad times that he just fell apart, leaving a boy inside.

Most of these paladins were still children, and the pressure of the Universe was held in them and Lance just broke. It was alright, he wasn’t weak for it, he shouldn’t be shamed and hiding because he was a child.

  
Children needed a helping hand, not a Universe.

**Author's Note:**

> Wreck your local angst gremlin with feedback, all feedback is what keeps the angst gremlin typing.


End file.
